Paperwork

I would like to think that my posts are positive to read, maybe informative, sometimes make you smile and above all they make you want you to come back for more. There is usually an exception to any rule, and I can say I need to have a rant just to get it out of my system so I can move on and just put it all down to one of life’s little trials, if this is all I have to moan about then i am a lucky guy really.

Because I have had such a nightmare with all this registration process, I have tried to provide a user guide for importing a used car from the USA, paying the import duties, taxes and first registration here in the UK. The are screen shots, live links and examples on how to fill in the forms. Both the links are below or can be found under the “Articles” Menu above.

Importing a car from the USA – Part 1 (Tax & Duties) or click here for the link

Importing a car from the USA – Part 2 (DVLA registration) or click here for the link

The full story:

When the wife gave me the money to purchase the car over four years ago I didn’t realise the most frustrating part of the whole restoration project was trying to get it on the road legally with all the correct paper work, which as it turned out I didn’t have. In my case the car was imported into the UK via a USAF service man while stationed over here at an Airbase. He bought over his car with him and used it for a number of years before he returned back to the USA leaving the car here which eventually ended up in the hands of the guy I bought it from. The car was on his Virginia plates when I purchased it which didn’t matter as the car was a bit of mess to put it mildly as I knew it had to be UK registered. To cut a potentially long story down the car was fully restored and an MOT issued for being road legal.

The next step is notify our Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), who in theory would issue me with UK registration plates. Part of this process involves filling in a form and supplying the insurance, MOT and ownership papers if you have them. I called them to request the appropriate paperwork and things went down hill from there. A call handler who couldn’t handle going to sleep without getting confused, said “I had to download the form from the website somewhere”. Thanks for that then, Not. I was trying not trouble Adam at Mustang Maniac and do it myself, but things were getting frustrating so I called Adam who explained I needed a few things and went on to explain it all to me. When a car is imported to the UK permanently you have to pay import duties and taxes to our government (who seem to rinse you of money no matter what you do). This confirmation of all duties paid is called a Notification Of Vehicle Arrival or NOVA. I was shown what they look like and sadly confirmed that I needed to get one. Sadly the car has never been officially imported which I was unaware of at the time, partly due to my ignorance I guess at the time of the sale.

The first step was to get this NOVA certificate and I was told to email a particular government department who responded with a form to fill in. I needed to supply import codes and details of the car. This was unbelievable task on the website as there are codes for literally everything. Eventually finding what I thought were the codes, I replied to HMRC (Her Majesty Revenue & Customs). These guys were very efficient and within a few days forwarded me another form to confirm what I had sent them and asked some additional questions. I completed the form and sent it back and within a few more days they confirmed the codes and invoice for Import Duties and the VAT owing. I paid the invoice and they send me back the critical Nova certificate. The car was now in the country, officially. So far so good and things were going well.

Back to the dregs of the gene pool where I filled in another form as before. This time I called up to say that I wanted to keep the original USA ownership certificate, just to keep with the car for provenance if you like. Now on the paperwork it does say that all paperwork must be the originals. So I wanted to see just how rigid this rule was, I was told that “a photocopy would be OK”. Two weeks later the form was rejected as I “hadn’t supplied the original ownership certificate”. So again I called up the department who told me “I should have supplied the original and nobody would have told me that a photocopy would be acceptable”. They then said that “if I supplied the original and put a covering letter in to say that wanted the original cert back it would be returned with the new registration certificate”, great I thought. So another form was filled in exactly the same as before, because I had to resubmit the application. Getting wise to these idiots i had ordered the forms in bulk from the website just in case. I wrote them a letter and sent it all back to the DVLA to the now christened “Devious Vile Losers Association”. They eventually sent me back the new registration documents and confirmation of the License plate. Brilliant, so the car is now registered in the UK and officially all paid up.

Wait, what is this in the returned pack? The original MOT, insurance certificate, NOVA form and lousy PHOTOCOPY of the ownership certificate. Not happy now. I called them up and they said “nobody would ever have said that to me, it wouldn’t have come back to me as they are sent back to the USA”. So there you have it; I have been lied to twice, and when I argued with them, they called me the liar. This is the best bit; I also received a separate letter from them posted the day before to say “they had made a mistake and sent the documents to the wrong address”. WTF? So they want me to try to track down a letter they sent to the wrong address. Now somebody else has ALL my vehicle and personal details. What a bunch of incompetent, self righteous, sellf important idiots they are. They did however send me a pre printed envelope to return the incorrect certificate, I would still have to put a stamp on it though. that makes is all OK then – I don’t think so.

Sometimes you are just better of just letting it go, but it winds me up big time. If I had told the losers that I didn’t have the ownership certificate and wrote a letter to say I own the car, I could have kept the original ownership certificate from Virginia USA. That will teach me for being honest and upfront in future with these people. I should have lied like they did to me. However, I have scanned images of their rejected forms and letters to me, so if they (DVLA) want me to prove any of this, I can. They want a perfect application from me, but they can’t even get my address correct.

So, with the new UK registration V5 form in my hand I could order the registration plates, (see previous posts). Now my car is on the road officially and I own it officially. In total all the back and forth with the DVLA it took me almost two months. The DVLA has to be the worst government department I have had the displeasure to try to deal with.

So that’s the rant over and I hope you can see why i need to get it of my chest. I feel better now, I will reread this again to see if I still feel the same in the morning. I can now put all this behind me and just get on with enjoying my car.

Next day 27th February 2016:

Yep, I still hate the department after reading all that again, I’m sad to admit that though. 🙁

On another note my car was taken on a long run yesterday, of hundred and twenty miles to be exact. Where to? Mustang Maniac of course. The journey was for two reasons, one to settle the car down on a long run, two I could have her checked over when I get there. I met up with Paul AKA “Lob Monster” just before we turned of to go to the country lanes to MM. The weekend cycle club were riding in the middle of the road, being their usual selfish selves and riding two abreast on the narrow roads. We turned up at the yard in a cool convoy, all be it only two cars making enough noise for a dozen cars. I love Flowmaster exhausts! The neutral disconnect or inhibitor switch needed a little bit of adjusting as the car would only start in the “N” neutral position sometimes, realignment was made and all is well again. Paul then checked the rear brake pads and adjusted them up for me. Now a few miles had now been put on them and should now have bedded in a bit. My car at the MM yard before the journey home. Thanks Paul (Lob Monster) for your help. Thanks to Adam for letting me pinch a ramp and move a few cars around so it could be sorted out.

The journey there and back was great, people driving past giving the thumbs up to me, lots of passengers in cars looking and somebody even taking a photo on the way home. I just love this car a no other car has ever made me feel like I do in it. Now I have an excuse to clean and polish the car again, oh well. 😀

Forgive my little rant and a long read, but next week I will make up for it as I am working on a largish post where I have all the before and after comparison photo’s. I’m enjoying putting that post together although it has taken a while to sort out the date order and trying to find similar angles before and after.

Share my Content

On The Road

A very special day for me today as I drove my car for the first time on public roads. Initially I was going to put up the full story of the complete nightmare it has been to get to this day registering her in the UK. But, I have decided that I didn’t want to ruin this post by having a major rant at the totally pathetic and incompetent Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) here in the UK. I will be posting a separate post on how and what went on with them very soon.

For now though it’s the good bits and positive vibes. Earlier in the week I had my number plates delivered and I was waiting to get a clear day to fit them on the car. The back of the car would be fine as that’s easy access, but I would have to roll the car out to get the front plate on. I wasn’t going to do that if it was raining.

The new plates are pressed metal with silver raised lettering. I have been given a nick-name by the Mustang Manic guys which is “Sat-Nav”. I make no excuses here – I am completely useless at directions. I am like an ant, I follow the same route all the time if shown. I get lost coming home and I have lived here over ten years now, honestly I am terrible. I have to put my sat-nav on to go to the MM yard still. When I was at their yard getting ready to fire up my car up I had to go and get petrol, they had to draw me a map of directions so I didn’t get lost on my way to the petrol station, which is less than a mile away. It’s a great sense of pleasure for the guys to take give me grief over it still. Why did I mention that? On the registration plates when your order them you can have type at the top and or bottom, I was going to put Sat-Nav at the bottom of mine. At the last minute I changed my mind as it would probably end up getting hacked of having to explain what it means to people. So I went with the standard Ford Mustang and the year, just in case people don’t know what it is.

As the plates don’t have holes they have to me drilled where you want them. I found the old USA reg plate for my car to use for the template. I aligned it up on the back of the new plates and market it with a pencil.

I placed a small piece of masking tape over the marked up areas to stop the small pilot drill from slipping. With the small hole done I took a larger drill to the pilot hole to allow the screw to go through.

There are just two holes at the top and a rubber grommet at the bottom. Screwing the plates on was really the last job on the car apart from maintenance from now on. It was a real buzz to tighten up those screws.

The car was ready. The weather was not bright sunshine, but it was dry and bright, today was the day. I got changed out of my working clothes and slipped into the driver’s seat. I took a deep breath trying to steady my slightly shaking hands. I put the key in the ignition and pumped the gas pedal a couple of times. The engine turned over for a few seconds and eventually the fuel was pumped into the carb. The engine fired and the exhausts barked into life, I revved it a few times and sat there for a what seemed liked minutes, but was only a few seconds. For the first time I adjusted the lap belt and pulled it tight. I checked the gauges, oil pressures were up, voltmeter was now reading just over fourteen and a half volts, petrol gauge showing a quarter of a tank. It was enough as I only intended to drive a few miles to see how she would settle down. I wound the window down, I pressed the brake pedal and pressed in the button on the gear lever to pull it into “R”, the revs died down as the gearbox engaged reverse, I released the brake and she rolled back out of the drive onto the road. I stopped the car and pulled the lever into “D”. The revs dropped and I released the brake and she rolled forwards while straightening the wheel. I squeezed the gas pedal the revs picked up and the exhaust stepped up their noise level, I was off. I smiled to myself and those few seconds will never ever be erased from my memory now. After a few hundred yards I came to my first junction, indicated and looked both ways. Normally this is second nature and I drive this way to work in my normal daily car. Today was different, I looked again and then again. I pressed the pedal and I moved into the road. The gears changed, but I didn’t feel it as it was silky smooth jus the engin note changing. I drove towards a pub where some guys where outside smoking, the group turned to look at my car. The buzz stepped up a level. People were looking at my car, as this is a narrow road the throb of the v8 and exhaust tone was bouncing of the buildings and a little girl with her dad pointed at my car, I don’t know what was said as the car soumd was my world at the moment. The road opened up into a country lane and I began to settle down a little. Sitting on the left didn’t feel strange, it just felt right and natural in the car. I drove a little more and pressed the pedal more. No hesitation, just a change in exhaust note. I checked the speedo and I was doing sixty mph without realising it. I drove around till I found a nice quiet country road and turned into it. I got out to take a couple of pics before anybody else turned into the road.

I started to make my way back just taking in the roads and sound, oh that sound. It’s so much better than I ever imagined down a country road. I was concentrating intently. The result of over four years of love, passion and work culminated in this brief fifteen minute drive. Was it worth it, hell yeah. It was worth it and wanted to drive it more. The trouble is I couldn’t. I left my wallet in my other car and the wife had taken that car. So I had no money to put fuel in her today. I needed to keep some in the tank for that longer trip to fill her up. I pulled back onto the drive and relaxed. With sadness I turned her off and just sat there. The engine was silent, but I could still her sound in my head. I unbuckled and got out of the car and shut the door. I walked around the car and checked underneath for leaks or anything out of the ordinary. I pulled the hood and I heard the metallic little ticks of metal cooling down as I inspected for anything out-of-place. All was OK.

I tidied up some things in the garage and left her outside for some fresh air. With the tools away and everything back in the tool boxes I walked back to the car, got in and started her up again, I gently rolled her into the garage until the rubber ball hanging from the ceiling just touched the windscreen. I turned her off and got out. I covered her up and realised that only now had my smile started to slip away. Less than ten miles driven and yet those recaptured memories of driving my first Mustang over twenty-five years were reignited like a firework going off. Was it what I was expecting owning my own Mustang and driving a v8 Mustang? No, it was better, MUCH better. Unfortunately I can’t explain that feeling of completing a project and realising a dream come true.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but there will be more I promise when I get more adventurous driving further afield. For now I am just so happy.

I noticed earlier today that Mustang Maniac blog posted about a ’67 390GT in Acapulco Blue. I had seen this car a few years ago and was the inspiration for my colour scheme.

What a day, what a buzz. More than that, what a truly awesome car Ford made in 1966.

Share my Content

Badges

I’m back! I know I haven’t posted for a while, but it has only been one month to the day in fact, yet when I see that last post “Merry Christmas..” it seems like forever ago, or is it just me? There is not a lot of things I can post about the car at the moment for very good reasons as it’s all behind the scenes, so more of that in bit though.

As you probably remember in November last year my car was at a Classic Car show in Birmingham on the Mustang Owners Club Of Great Britain exhibition stand. The club has its own magazine called “Round Up” for the club members and they ran an article on the show. My car had a few nice photo’s taken of it and me cleaning it. I’m Sure they won’t mind me posting them here.

I was well pleased when I saw this spread I must say. 😀

The Car Update:

Any vehicle that is permanently imported into the UK needs to have Duty and Tax paid. Unaware at the time when I bought the car this was the case I am unable to register my car for the UK roads because the car has not paid any import duty. Needless to say I wasn’t very impressed with finding this out. But, I put it down to a learning experience now, but I would like to have a conversation with the bloke who sold it to me though. It turns out that in order to put a UK registration plate on the car you need to fill in paper work, lots of paperwork. In the near future once this nightmare is all sorted out, I intend to post an article on how to do it with a step by step process as I go through it. There will be all sorts of useful links where I can find them and hopefully this will help with other people in the same situation.

The first step is to pay the Import Duty and VAT (Value Added Tax) on the car. There are literally hundreds of different categories for items to be imported and choose from. I have been given a helping hand by Mustang Maniac on how to do it all. Once the duties are paid you will get a “NOVA” (Notification Of Vehicle Arrival) certificate. This will state that <said> vehicle has had all import Tax and Duties paid on it. From there on you can fill in more forms to request a registration plate and pay more money for the plate to go on the car. So far to date I have been granted my “NOVA” certificate with all fees paid in full. This single document now becomes a critical part of the vehicle’s history for the UK. I am now waiting for the response from our Government department, DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) who are responsible for issuing the registration plates for the UK. Some time soon I will be given an official licence registration number allocated to my car. Then I can pay more money with all my paper work to get a “Registration Plate” or badge if you like made up to put on the car.

For obvious reasons I won’t say too much at the moment as it’s all ongoing. But once it has all be completed and I am able to get the car on the road legally, I will do a full update article on what and how it all works.

In the mean time I have been playing in the garage and looking for things to do apart from polishing the car again. I have many left over parts from the restoration, they were either broken, worn out, bits missing from them, burnt out or cosmetically damaged. I found in a box the right hand side fender badge. The pins on the back were broken off and the chrome was pitted and looked rough. I cleaned it up and had an idea for a use for it. Obviously it couldn’t have gone on the car as the paint had come off and I only had one of the pair. So, I bought some model enamel paints as close as I could get to the Mustang Tri Bar colours.

I painted the badge and it came out pretty good. I could have done it a little neater but I was more interested in the colour match at the time. However, all this messing around is all for a good reason; the badge on the AirCon unit has rubbed of a bit which has the ford Tri Bar colours on it. So now this painted test piece looks OK, I paint the tiny logo in the car as well now. As always I shall bring pictures of it when I get round to doing it.

I bought some sticky magnetic tape to stick on the back just to see how it would cope and look.

Then I found something to stick it on, my Blue-Point service cart.

I do believe I now have a unique Limited Edition 1 of 1 tool cart. I think it looks pretty good, and the best bit is that I can move it around and stick it to anything metal I want and it will become a 3D Mustang badged merchandise. I may even get some more of these emblems from the next car jumble show I go to.